I have terrible teeth. The ones at the front are okay, but my molars are a disaster. They’ve been giving me trouble for about ten years. At this point they’re literally falling apart.
About a year ago, I decided to start saving up to get implants. It’s a big job, and expensive, but I just don’t want to deal with them anymore. Replacing them with fake teeth that will last until I’m dead is a great alternative.
So I went to the dentist to get them removed, and he won’t do it. He says they can be repaired and that I just need to book 12 appointments to have a root canal, a bunch of crowns put on, and a filling. I know full well that these god-damn things are going to start falling apart again as soon as he’s done.
For some reason he refuses to contemplate removing them. I’m going to have to travel to a different country now to have the work done because the dentist at the end of my road is too much of a fucking pussy to do it.
No serious dentist would replace original teeth with implants if he still sees a chance of saving the original. Implantation is always their very last resort. Also, having implants doesn’t mean you can live a careless life „until you’re dead“. To not loose them too, it’s even more important to maintain a proper oral hygiene. If your jawbone-structure starts to degrade, you rather end up slurping your dinner through a sippy cup for the rest of your life.
I understand your frustration. It’s justified. The dentist should have explained why they aren’t willing to do the job, and why it’s not the best choice overall.
Now, I’m not your doctor/dentist, so take this with that in mind.
But, unless you have a specific medical condition that is going to result in tooth loss no matter what you do, implants are a poor choice. Even with one of those conditions, you want to wait as long as possible because implants have limits and they don’t always preserve the jaw properly.
Ever known anyone with dentures? They tend to lose their fit fairly often. Part of the reason for that ia that the bones of the jaw are maintained by the act of chewing. The motion of natural teeth in their sockets keeps the jaw strong and healthy in a way that implants can’t match. Mind you, implants do stimulate the jaw some, it just isn’t the same, and it isn’t as good. So delaying that as long as possible is the standard practice. You’d be in the situation where any dentist or oral surgeon willing to do the job (again, assuming no underlying condition) isn’t practicing good ethics for their field, so you wouldn’t be able to trust their work very much.
Restoration > extraction, every time.
There are limits, obviously. Sometimes there’s no way to restore a given tooth, and it needs pulling. But you’d be better off overall doing it when there’s no other choice, tooth by tooth.
And it isn’t like implants are truly a once and done thing. They require maintenance and work as well. They can break, the area around them can get infected. Worst case, the bone degrades enough around the implants that you lose the implant as well as pieces of the jaw. That is brutal as fuck, btw.
I get it though. One of my friends had her teeth yanked maybe fifteen years ago. She had some family genetic thing where their teeth just straight up suck. They’ll literally just fall out because the root dissolves sometimes. Finding a doc to do it so she could do dentures took some calling around. And that’s with one of the medical issues where it’s an inevitable outcome. The only difference would be how long she’d have to deal with pain and issues before them being gone anyway.
So, again, your rant is totally understandable. I’m not saying otherwise. Your dentist should have explained all of that to you, with pictures and diagrams. And they should have explained that they’re ethically constrained to not jump into that severe of an action.
I think in general it’s a good idea to leave as much of the original substance as possible (if it is in good condition). You can remove it later on but if you do it now it’s gone forever. And it’s much more work and surely hurts more to get implants. Also it should be more expensive.
I have 22 crowns and all molars are partly crowned. So if I need new crowns in a decade or two there is a little bit of material left to work with.
I’d go with the recommendation of my local dentist. And also keep in mind that if you travel to another country, you may have to travel back to get a free repair. My dad did this to save money and the dentists in our country could basically not help him very much since they used parts and materials which our dentists did not have. (But I’m also sure they had a lack of motivation)
